I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent (me) or Toasty attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad. Or, maybe not so bad. What's the worst that could happen?
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Parallels - Disney+
I watched Parallels so long ago that it feels like I watched it in 2021. Is that possible? (No, it debuted in March). So far on Disney+ I've not encountered many foreign language D+ "originals", and yet Parallels is a French production, but promoted as a D+ original. Curious.
Anyway, the show is a 6-episode sci-fi drama that clearly was inspired by Netflix's smash German time travel mind-fuck, Dark. I was expecting, given this being a Disney production starring teenagers, that this would be a stripped-down drama, one with more teen angst in the Young Adult mode, but to my surprise it doesn't hold back from some heavier emotional implications. A group of four friends head to an old bunker they've turned into a hang out space, only to get caught in the side-effects of a supercollider experiment. After the experiment, two of the teens are missing, Bilal and Sam. Sam's troubled younger brother, Victor, and his crush, Romane, are left behind, unable to explain to their families what happened to the others. Meanwhile Sam finds himself in an alternate reality where everyone else is gone and a cloud of suspicion surrounds him and Bilal shows up, but a 37-year-old man. What happens after I've basically forgotten at this point, but I recall being impressed with the mystery while at the same time being completely unable to shake the feeling that this was all familiar territory. It really did have so many shades of Dark that I couldn't help but compare the two. Dark was an ambitious multi-season epic that required deep investment into the plot, characters and timelines. Parallels is a much slimmer affair, to the point that its finale, while providing closure, doesn't seem wholly satisfying to what it built up to. Then again, with only six episodes, most clocking in between 30 and 40 minutes, there's not a lot of runway to really build up to something big.
If you haven't seen Dark, this is like an entry level version of it, if you want to test the waters to see if you can both handle the timey-wimeyness of it, as well as subtitles.
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The Old Man Season 1 - FX
Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow together again, for the first time? Without doing a minimum amount of research, it seems like Bridges and Lithgow should have been in a whole string of movies together and that this series was a marked "reunion" of the two. Kind of like how Heat brought DeNiro and Pachino together for the first time, but it seemed like the two had been acting in films together for years. Anyway, the Old Man should have been EVENT television, but we're in a serious golden age of TV, an abundance of riches, and as such, this union of two massive acting talents kind of fell under the radar.
The Old Man finds Bridges as an old time operative who has been operating off the radar for a very, very long time. But, just because he's been carefully working in the shadows doesn't mean that people aren't still looking for him. When his current guise is compromised, he runs, and winds up sheltering as a border with Amy Brenneman. The two have a bit of a thing, but when she's threatened by her association with him, he essentially kidnaps her to keep her safe. This dynamic is the most potent, as well as the most difficult aspect of the series. Bridges genuinely likes her and is affectionately trying to keep her out of harm's way, but at the same time Brenneman is completely at his mercy in a very much damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't way. But, she also proves herself adaptable with her own level of cunning and shrewdness and I do quite love how her story plays out. Meanwhile, we learn about Bridges' daughter (Alia Shawkat) who is his inside man at the CIA, working directly under Lithgow as his protege, and close family friend. There's definitely conflicted emotions in all of that that do get explored rather nicely.
And then, this whole time, we're thinking "The Old Man" is Bridges, or possibly both Bridges and Lithgow, but no...they were both working together for a time under The Old Man (Joel Gray) who is both above and beyond the normal pecking order of operations in the world of espionage they exist in. Add to the mix a hitman and his handler (Gbenga Akinnagbe, Ecko Kellum) who have their orders and their own objectives, and it all swirls into a grand mess of who's-really-in-charge and what's-the-real-threat. It's a twisty, exciting, gripping series that would maybe have been tighter as a film, but it's never a bad time with either of its two leads on the screen (it keeps them apart for the bulk of the first season, save for a scintillating phone call or two, so that when they do eventually come together it feels like a suitably massive moment).
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 - Amazon Prime
But, the wife, she likes her fantasy. And there's the curiosity factor of seeing Bezos put his money where his nerdy heart lives, putting a billion dollars into a season of television like a man for whom money has lost all meaning. So I watched The Rings of Power and found myself...surprisingly...invested. Where others, for valid reasons and for toxic ones, have found LOTR:ROP unwatchable, I actually looked forward to that hour every Friday where I would be transported to Middle Earth, watching hobbits and orcs and dwarves and elves explore their religious beliefs, call into question their societal tenets, confront their prejudices, all in the name of quests, quests, quests. Like the slow sci-fi of Andor, this is slow fantasy, taking its time, exploring its world, the people that live in it, and how they live in it. How they choose to accept or defy the order of things. I thought, based on the trailers, that LOTR:ROP would be populated by a cast of not-ready-for-primetime-players, the type of fantasy cast you'd see on the syndicated productions like Xena or Hercules but I was surprised there too. They may not be big names or recognizable faces, but they are talented, attractive people who buy into the world, and make it all come to life. And jesus, do they ever look great doing it. The sets, the costumes, makeup, hair, armor, weapons, decor, all of it is to.the.nines. It's gorgeous, and the razzle dazzle of an opulent production does go a long long way. Do I remember a single character's name? No. But I can picture the whole season pretty vividly in my mind. As much as I can get bored by fantasy, I really did like every story in this (but the stuff with the dwarves was my favourite). Your mileage may vary.
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She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Season 1- Disney+
I really dig She-Hulk as a character. Since John Byrne's meta-adventurous run in the late 1980's with the character, Jen Walters has been mainly positioned as a fun character in the Marvel Universe. Before Deadpool was addressing his audience in the comics, She-Hulk was breaking the fourth-wall, but not in an imp-ish way that other comedic characters would in comics. She-Hulk's adventures still mattered, still had stakes, but there was a narrative device, and an injection of Looney Tunes into the proceedings that really made her title stand out. The 20 years later, the Charles Soule run of She-Hulk, on which the TV show is loosely riffing on, focussed on Jen as a lawer, and on making a workplace sitcom set in a law office and courtrooms, basically a superheroic Ally McBeal, with only a minimal amount of fourth wall breaking.
I was really into the idea of a She-Hulk TV show, especially with Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany in the lead (she was outstanding in that show, and having heard her on comedy podcast, knew that she could more than handle a sitcom leading role). But then the trailer came out, the one with the unfinished Shulkie, and the trailer wasn't selling the comedy very well either. I was nervous. And that nervousness bled through to watching every episode, week-by-week, and it never let up. I was not relaxed watching the show the first time around, and I was nitpicking it to death, to the point that I had convinced myself that it was a show that tried too hard and failed.
But, I gave it a second shot, binged it in one sitting, and found myself absolutely delighted almost every moment. Knowing what was going to happen, knowing who the players were, not anticipating any surprises, taking myself out of MCU-SPECULATION-MODE (which is a horrible place to be sometimes) and just sitting back with the show, it's super-duper fun. It's really not trying too hard. It successfully negotiates adapting the character, adapting the Soule run, integrating different aspects of the MCU, introducing new aspects to the MCU, playing with the fourth wall, and getting more than a few laughs every episode, while also investing you in the character and her journey in a big-budgeted sitcom kind of way. It's impressive. Sure, not every scene with She-Hulk looks perfect. It's a tough effect to pull off even on a heightened Marvel TV budget, but, once you're used to it, it's mostly good enough for now. I mean, do I have the hots for the big green lady? What I think is the biggest contributing factor She-Hulk brings to the MCU is sexuality. With the exception of Tony Stark's more lecherous tendencies in the early Iron Man movies and a tepid love scene in the Eternals, sex is almost never acknowledged in the MCU, but here Jen is sexually active, and sexually proactive. In perhaps my favourite turn of events, she wheels Matt Murdock (so great to see Charlie Cox again, and playing the character in a lighter capacity) who then is the next morning seen doing the walk of shame barefoot in his Daredevil costume, boots in hand. My favourite single moment of the series (it makes no logical sense, but it's still brilliantly executed). It's great fun, with a great cast (love Ginger Gozaga and Josh Segarra, and Patty Guggenheim's Madisynn is the ultimate scene stealer), and lots of epic moments all pointedly fun. I went from thinking this was maybe not good to now thinking it's maybe the best Disney+ Marvel show. Can't wait for more, but also can't wait to watch it again.
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Lego Masters Season 3 - Fox
Lego Masters Australia Season 1&2 - Discovery
Lego Masters UK Season 1 - AmazonPrime
I've written about Lego Masters a few times now on the blog, and I'm unabashedly a fan of the show. The third season of the North American version, hosted by Will Arnett, I was so excited to watch week to week, and I was bursting with Canadian Pride as we had a few very strong teams in competition this year. What I genuinely like about the show is how, despite being a competition, the competitors clearly begin to bond with each other over time and there's a real sense of comraderie between them, as well as the judges (Lego certified builders Amy and Jamie) who clearly respect the talent as well as the people. Some of the challenges this year included building life-sized dogs for a dog show, playable mini-golf holes, recreating a Marvel scene, and building a workable water fountain. After the first four or so teams are eliminated it becomes pretty clear who the top teams are, yet there are still surprises that happen, technical failures that were unpredictable that can sink even the most talented team. As always, the editing format of the show can be grating. I HATE that the show opens with a preview of the show, teasing the challenge and which teams might be having trouble with them, rather than just letting the show play out, and I also, direly, detest the cut to commercial when something dramatic is about to happen and the 30 second replay when it comes back from commercial. It's maddening. As well, the editing of the timing so that we hear Arnett call out how much time is left, but it's clear when it cuts to different teams and their builds, it's not aligned with the actual time. I don't appreciate the deception for "dramatic storytelling purposes".
Which is just one of the reasons why Lego Masters Australia has proven to be the superior entry of the Lego Masters franchise. Lets get this out of the way, the first season of Lego Masters Australia was a bit of a gong show, with some of the participants being way, way down the talent ladder compared to what we'd seen on Lego Masters in North America for 3 seasons. But Season 1 of LMAus also pre-dates Lego Masters in North America by 2 years so it really set the template for how the show should run and I bet at that time the Lego Community was maybe a little dubious about a talent show of Lego building. The second season of LMAus, though, wound up with three teams in the final that produced a build that could have bested the winners of any of the three seasons of LM in North America, so it was a huge step up for season 2.
What makes LMAus stand out, though, is its host, comedian Hamish Blake. Where Will Arnette's on-screen personality is full of fake ego and braggadocio that kind of keeps him at a bit of a distance from the competitors, Hamish is utterly boyish and playful, frequently doing bits with, and around, the competitors. Blake also does a talking head confessional to the camera (something Arnett doesn't really do) and really brings a hugely comedic aura to the show (it's no wonder he's won awards for his hosting of the show) that is infectious. The show's format also is different, and took a bit of getting used to, but I like it more. Rather than 10-12 teams starting off, the show only starts with 8 teams. They do an initial, non-elimination build to compete for the "golden brick" (which the team can use at a later date for immunity from an elimination challenge), then they do a build for which the winner gets to skip the next elimination build, and then it's only on the third build that a team gets eliminated. This way we get to see each team produce at least 3 builds before one is eliminated. It's more focussed on the talent than the competition this way, and I do love it. Also with the smaller starting roster it lets the teams develop their sense of camaraderie with each other faster, and we as an audience get to know them more easily. The first season had one team with a super-talented but utterly maddening, ego-centric twerp that pushed around his partner who went maddeningly deep into the show, which fuelled the show when maybe the builds weren't as strong as we're used to. Season 2 had a lot of surprises, including an underwater build, and designing a brand new Star Wars ship, among others, which really pushed the challengers to pretty amazing heights. The finale of Season 2 was easily the best of the 3 North American and 2 Australian series. I'm eagerly awaiting the domestic release of seasons 3 and 4.
Less exciting was Lego Masters UK. The format of the show is decidedly different, at 4 episodes the first season. Though I should stipulate that Season 1 predates even the first season of LMAus it's still wild how drastically different the show is. Starting with a roster of 48 teams, quickly winnowed down to 8, and then eliminating two more in the first episode, it's a dodgier talent pool than the first episode of LMAus. Like, two teams of kids under 12 made it through to the top 8. It seemed clear to me that this was an early prototype for the Lego Masters format, and there wasn't much figured out, in terms of how they wanted to present the show, who they wanted to have on the show, and what the target audience was. It's structured like a tepid British all-ages documentary, with the host narrating what's going on and providing lame puns as transition points. It borders on painful. The "brick pit" were kind of majestic places in the North American and Australian versions, here, it's all just Rubbermaid towers...so many drawers really making it hard to find things and build fast. And the challenges were cute, but super short, with 3 hours, or sometimes no prescribed time limit, leading to mostly pedestrian builds across three episodes. The final episode provided the two finalists something like ten days to create their builds, which did lead to some pretty massive displays, and they were pretty nice, but I couldn't help but wonder what any of the top three teams from any of the other LM series would have done with 10 days of building time. There's a two more seasons of LMUK floating out there (I'm hoping they improve the format but if they didn't it's probably why there's only 3 seasons) and apparently 3 seasons of a Dutch LM series (which looks to be more in the NA/Aus format)
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For All Mankind Season 1 - AppleTV+
As far as streaming services go, AppleTV+ has the hardest time selling me on their wares. I've been hesitant to explore what they're offering, if anything because they don't promote what they offer very prominently. I think of all their shows the only one I recall seeing a trailer for was The Morning Show which only seemed to be selling the idea of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell, no other indication as to what it was about. I found Severance (my favourite show of '22) via Adam Scott promoting it on a podcast, and Mythic Quest was trumpeted highly by tv critics during its first season, but not promoted well by Apple. For All Mankind is something that should have been an easy sell to me and other nerdy based on it being the product of Ronald D. Moore of Battlestar Galactica fame (with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi)...plus, it's sci-fi, in that it presents an alternate history of the space race. It really starts with the conceit of "what if Russia landed on the moon first?" and takes its cue from there.
The first season rockets through the late-1960s and 1970's, taking a big jump through time and progress every few episodes. It mixes fictionalized version of real life individuals with wholly new characters fleshing out that the Cold War became a lot more about the Space Race. Joel Kinneman (Suicide Squad) is the de-facto lead character of the series, playing Ed Stafford, as a fictional Apollo 10 astronaut who orbited the moon, and felt the pull to land, but followed orders instead, costing them the "first man on the moon" status. Ed and his old guard of astronauts find themselves in a heightened environment, flush with funding and keen to compete to achieve the next great milestone. From the onset, the idea is that the moon was just the beginning, that Mars is next. The series has a pretty large cast - astronauts, ground support, administrative, housewives and children. Shantel VanSanten (The Flash) plays Ed's wife Karen, and at first I judged the role as being a real thankless one, just another stay on the ground, anxiously watching TV cut to as the men do the derring-do, but the role becomes much more that of who's left behind, particularly late in the season when Ed is effectively trapped on the moon base (yep, this season ends with a moon base having been established) and she's having to deal with increasingly difficult situation at home, alone, and make the decision on whether it's good or not for Ed's mental health to know what's happening. There's also some spotlight roles for female astronauts, with the episode "Nixon's Women" probably my favourite of the series so far, with one wife of an astronaut joining the program (logically, and being pushed through because of her attractiveness, plus the marketability of a husband and wife astronaut crew) and the pleasure of unflappable Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger - Lost) joining the cast full time.
The first season works so well because of its rapid pace, burning through time and letting the audience keep catching up to them and all the benchmarked changes to the timeline compared to our own. That tracking of the changes in the realities is probably my favourite part about watching the show, but I also enjoy how grounded and methodical it is, not afraid to just wallow in jargon if it means maintaining the air of authenticity. It's a good looking show, probably a pretty expensive first season of television. We've started season 2 which starts with a 10 year time jump, but I found it gets bogged down in petty drama, rather than the exacerbated pace of rocketing through time and teasing out the alternate reality. We stalled out on it at the half way point but have been encouraged to stick with it for an apparently dynamite season 3. Will report back.
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The Resort - Showcase
The series jumps back and forth in time, between Emma and Noah's often fruitless and certainly amateur investigation, and Sam (Skyler Gisondo) and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden) meet-cute romance that has the spectre of tragedy looming over it. Emma and Noah's investigation seems to only do enough to provoke people who thought this story long since forgotten, and the show keeps asking the question does it actually spell danger or does it only feel dangerous? Then, in the mix of it all, is a third storyline about the mysterious, unhinged Alexsander Vasilakis (Ben Sinclair), owner of the doomed resort, who claims to be a man displaced from time, and his memories are leaking out of his ear. His friend Baltasar (Luis Gerardo Méndez) is the lynchpin of both timelines.
What's quite wonderful about The Resort is how it upends its status quo every episode. You're never quite where you think you are with the series, and each episode ends in a way that provides you with no clue as to where its going. It's not a puzzlebox mystery, so there's no frustration with these pivots, just surprise. The tone of the show shifts as well, from dramatic, to comedic, to suspenseful, to serene and back as it weaves its story, that, slight spoiler, does take a metaphysical turn, but also earns what it asks of its audience. It knows what its showing is hard to comprehend and its characters reflect that. And along the way, we get a pretty intense dissection of Emma and Noah's life together, and it's quite affecting. As well, I was very, very pleased that the show concludes, decisively, at the end of its 8 episodes. It's a mini-series, not a franchise or left with any dangling loose ends. It's kind of rare that we get such a concrete and satisfying conclusion to a story.
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1899 Season 1 - Netflix
Speaking of Dark and puzzle boxes, the creators of Dark return to netfilx with another compelling puzzle box mystery, this time set on a turn-of-the-century ocean liner, with a multicultural, multi-lingual cast, and the ominous disappearance 4-months earlier of a predecessor ship. Truth told, I had a lot to say about this series when I watched it and started writing about it over a month ago, but a blogging mishap to my words, and enthusiasm to rewrite those word, away
So, in brief, 1899 is a bit of a marvel resulting in part from Netflix's global outreach. There are no less than 6 languages at play on the ship, and there's nearly no storytelling gymnastics at play to try and get all the characters to speak English. This is a show from German creative team, so if anything, it seems to jump into German a little more often than I expected. The opening moments of the film are a dream sequence which triggers the puzzle box into motion, but it's only once our Captain makes the unpopular decision to turn off course to see if an emergency broadcast is coming from the missing sister vessel that the mysteries start to unfurl.
What Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar are so adept at is not just negotiating their puzzle box elements (it's apparent that they learned from Lost's mistakes, and they have the answers to all their mysteries, but also that the mysteries are only important as long as the characters care about them) but in having them service the story and characters, not just fill space with intrigue. Across 8 episode they blitz through so many of the confounding things they introduce, and at the midway point, they have a massive event that shakes up the cast quite dramatically.
I was all in on the series right up until the end when we get a reveal that...spoiler...isn't too dissimilar to the ending of the American version of Life on Mars (and that one left a bad taste in my mouth, so it was an unwelcome reminder). My hope is that, like with Dark, Friese and bo Odar's big reveal in this finale is just another upending of the status quo and our expectations, and that there's an entirely other drama and purpose to come.
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Atlanta Season 4 - FX
Season 3 of Atlanta, produced during the crest of the pandemic and in Europe took an almost detached form from what Atlanta had been before. It was almost more of an anthology of detached stories than any sort of serialized production. I mean, Atlanta has been operating in this mode almost from the beginning, but it sort of forgot about its connections between its characters, and certainly it felt set apart from its titular home city. Season 4, then, returns home for 10 episodes that, at least in the first half, reach for a more comedic tone, while still doubling down on the surrealism and still steeping itself into the topics that seem to be weighing heavily on Donald Glover's exceptionally talented mind.
There's Earn's going to therapy and making decisions about his future in both career and family, Alfred facing both his own mortality and that of his career's (literally buying a farm), Darius' adventures in trying to return a bad gift or take a spa day in a sensory deprivation tank, Van confronting her parenting skills after taking her daughter to a casting call only to have Lottie get trapped in a crazy-time version of Tyler Perry's Atlanta-based studios. The only one-off episode is a wild modern-style documentary about "the Blackest movie of all time: A Goofy Movie" which is as compelling as it is fake, which is to say completely.
With the exception of the very serene, laid back and nonthreatening "Snipe Hunt", Glover and company reach for greater comedic highs, and even greater absurdity than ever before (and they reached pretty high before), and mostly accomplish it. I enter every episode of Atlanta with a pit of dread in my stomach, and I need a good 10 minutes with every episode before I know what I'm sort of in for, tone wise. But at the same time, I've been watching long enough that I know Glover loves a good rug pull. In the second episode, "The Homeliest Little Horse", the rug pull is one of Atlanta's biggest laughs, but, in typical fashion, one that really makes you think about the implications of it all and make a decision on how much you agree with it. It's an absolutely fabulous, hilarious, utterly compelling, thought-provoking, frequently challenging show, one that I wish could continue forever, but at the same time one that I know we were lucky to even get 4 seasons of. Each episode is a mini-movie, often playing with genres, and most are worth coming back to on their own merits, as well as part of the whole.
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Letterkenny Season 11 - Crave
For the past two years, new seasons of Letterkenny have been released on Christmas day, and for the past two years, the wife and I would blitz Letterkenny in its entirety prior to the new season dropping. I love the show -- I'm a huge fan -- and I do like how connected I am to it as an international success, dripping in Canadiana as it is. But I have to say, 11 seasons of Letterkenny may be too much in one concentrated dose. I'm so familiar with the first 7-8 seasons that I know most of the beats (but by no means all the jokes) by heart. The more recent seasons, 9 and 10, are a little more mysterious, as I've only seen them once or twice prior, and then the new season, bingeing all 6 episodes at once, becomes a bit of an overload. As my wife and I slip into Letterkenny-isms throughout the month of December -- telling each other to "figger it out" or "pull your finger outta your ass" or "skoden" -- it becomes to much to take in the new things, to properly absorb the new content in any meaningful way, to the point that I start to wonder if the new content isn't maybe not as up-to-snuff (up-to-schneef?) as prior seasons.
Did I laugh at Season 11? Heartily. But, because the latest season is so overpowered by my entrenched familiarity of what came prior, it doesn't feel as good, it doesn't yet feel a part of the whole. Is it just that? Or is there something, maybe, lacking about an episode that spends its time debating which Old Dutch potato chip flavour is its best (especially when All-Dressed, the most Canadian chip of all, is excluded from the running). It's kind of an one-note joke that has peaks and valleys within, but it's only elevated by the "what the actual fuck is going on here" questioning of an outside party stepping into the proceedings.
Prior seasons in the middle would end with a bit of a little emotional cliffhanger, whether it's Wayne getting suckerpunched by another local bruiser, Tanis beckoning Wayne to the barn, or that Marie-Fred moment (or that other Marie-Fred moment). The past two seasons have been missing that little end-note cue to wonder about when the show returns, that little character moment to contemplate the implications of. This season has a runner of Wayne helping out a local degen who wants to turn over a new leaf, but ends with a very melancholy failure to do so, and it's a kind of heaviness the show's never had before that maybe almost breaks its reality. It points out a sort of in-world, small-town justice system that calls into question the whole order of things (Stuart telling Wayne about the rumours Jivin' Pete was spreading when he was buying drugs off him makes Stuart complicit in Jivin' Pete's drug addiction, and it's odd that Wayne doesn't do anything about that, more over is seen hanging out with the skids on a regular basis).
I'm probably overthinking it. Someone needs to tell me to pull my finger outta my ass.
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His Dark Materials Season 3 - HBO
My final viewing for '22: the finale of this adaptation of the Philip Pullman His Dark Material trilogy. It ends a long way away from where it started, and it feels like it's grown up so much, in part because of the bigger break between seasons as a result of the pandemic which means young Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will (Amir Wilson) have visibly grown out of childhood and into young adults. It also is much heavier, more head-on in its critique of blindly following religious leaders and treating stories literally. The series has been leading to a literal war between heaven and Earth, but it posits Heaven and Hell as just other dimensions, angels and demons as just other forms of beings unlike our own, but still struggling with the same quandaries we all do.
As it builds and builds towards an epic confrontation, its a story that's constantly taking a step back to look at its characters and the context of the situation, and how it's shaping them, it's a series that wants us to think of the past as we consider the future, to look at how we've changed as people before we decide that others cannot change. It's a series that sends the message of live life, be curious, explore, but do good when you can and be mindful of what harm you are capable of. There's not explicitly an anti-war stance, but it clearly is a story that embraces love and peace as answers far more than fighting and death.
My favourite aspect of the story is the idea of us each having our own death, a spirit so to speak that follows us from our birth, and knows us like no other. When our time comes, we meet our death, and reflect on life as they move us to the next stage of existence. That next stage, in Pullman's worlds, can be a number of things, but ultimately it's a return to everything, becomeing one with it all. Dust. It's much the same conceit as in the finale of The Good Place and this connection between the two series made me feel all sorts of warm tinglies.
I worried about the third-season yips with HDM, that the series would be hamstrung by declining viewership and tightening budgets, but there was clearly an investment that was made by HBO and they delivered where it mattered most. The world of Mulefa, and it's elephantine inhabitants really came to life on an impressive scale, and the angelic battle in the sky was stunning in its presentation. Though I haven't read the books, but I understand the reputation they have now.
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